The appeal of the overnight train in Austria

A Nightjet train in Vienna, Austria that’s headed to Hamburg in Germany. Photo: AFP

It looks like a scene from the halcyon days of the railways. Travellers are finding their sleeper berth, turning on the reading light and stowing their cases under the bed. But it’s still a common nightly ritual at Vienna’s main station, where overnight train routes have endured in the age of low-cost flights and are even expanding.

From early evening, the departures board at Vienna’s Hauptbahnhof station becomes a roll call of destinations to whet the appetite of any globetrotter: Venice, Rome, Zurich, Berlin, Warsaw...